FEBRUARY 2004

Welcome to the Rockbridge Global Village, Inc. Newsletter. We hope that you find information and topics within this newsletter interesting and useful.

Topics in this newsletter:

Real Results from Virtual Learning
Safe and Sound Online Travel Booking
Bush Earmarks $60B for IT
Key Online Music Piracy Ruling Reviewed

Real Results from Virtual Learning
February 2004 Submission
By Corinna Richards

Though distance learning has been around for decades, online education by means of virtual classrooms is a relatively recent phenomenon, but it’s popularity is increasing, as it becomes more and more accessible to people of all ages. Virtual students come from all backgrounds and walks of life. Recent surveys have shown that many online learners tend to be working professionals seeking to better their circumstances. However, this characteristic is shifting as more schools introduce online programs from first grade through high school and as tuition are fees dropping. Importantly there is also a new generation of students entering the scene. Young learners who are growing up with computers and the Internet integrated into their lives, are showing signs of interest in online education.

What is web-based learning?

Web-based or virtual learning consists of courses offered online that do not require the student to be on campus for most or all class participation. Virtual courses vary widely. While some online course are quite conventional, not far removed from traditional mail distance learning courses, others are innovative and utilize a wide range of interactive software, which are aimed at enhancing your learning and communication possibilities.

All courses are taught by experienced instructors, many of whom have specific training in online teaching. Online courses distribute educational material by means of streaming media, they also use chat rooms, email, or a listserv to maintain regular communication between teachers and students. Many online classes also offer regular real time voice interaction between teachers and fellow students. Some courses are unscheduled, allowing you to be flexible in your study time. Others offer a more rigid timetable, deadlines and regular assessments. Workloads can vary depending on the type and duration of the course you are working on. If you are undertaking an online degree, for example, you might expect to spend at least as much time in the virtual classroom as you would in the live classroom. If you are a younger student, you may use the virtual classroom to replace or enhance your school activities. The fees for online courses also vary widely so it’s worth your while to shop around. There are some course offered freely though many of these are not accredited courses.

What do you need to become a virtual student?

If you’re planning on becoming a virtual student access to the Internet is of course essential, as is knowledge of how to use the technology. Streaming media is an important part of the delivery of instructional materials, so you also need the appropriate software. If you don’t already have the required software your school may make it available. Clear communication skills are also important. Because most of the course interaction is made through streaming media, precise writing skills are a definite advantage and will save you a lot of time. Of course their are no teachers looking over your shoulder and pressing you to get the work done, so to be a successful virtual student you need to be self-motivated. An element of strong self-discipline is needed to complete required course work and to participate in chat sessions. As an online student you will also need to be prompt about making your instructor aware of any problems you are having. 

Online tutors dealing with larger web groups may not immediately notice if you are experiencing difficulties and might even assume you are simply not devoting enough time to your studies. Regular communication with your course leaders is important. You also need to be able to set priorities and effectively manage your time. Being realistic about how much time you can devote to your study is crucial. For example you may need to find at least 10 to 12 hours a week study time for an online degree course. However this need not be as daunting as it sounds. Good online programs have built in mechanisms to help motivate students. These include interactive course modules, regular deadlines, as well as regular feedback from instructors.

Online learning for Children

Flexibility and control are important issues in your child’s education. As a concerned parent you may want your child to be able to attend a regular school but still have the benefits of part-time or extra-curricular online education. An increasing number of schools are glad to work out deals with home schooling parents so that kids can take one or more courses, play in the band, engage in team sports, or even switch back and forth from one year to the next between schooling and independent learning.

Course materials may include Web resources,
multimedia software, videotaped lectures and seminars, and audio taped lectures.

Class discussions with classmates and one-on-one interactions with faculty occur online via e-mail conferences and chat rooms as well as through teleconferences.

Online courses are examined during usual examination periods. Exams for accredited courses require attendance at a formal examination center.

Is the virtual classroom anti-social?

If you are home schooling your children or just considering the idea, one of your primary concerns is probably socialization. Many professional educators believe that the live classroom is the only place that kids can learn to interact with each other, however this is not necessarily the case. According to Dr. Raymond Moore, researcher in human development and author of The Hurried Child, "The idea that children need to be around many other youngsters in order to be socialized, is perhaps the most dangerous and extravagant myth in education and child rearing today." Your child is already immersed in a social environment including family and friends outside of school. Rather than preventing your children from learning social skills, virtual schools can provide a range of interaction not only through supervised chat rooms and email both on a local and global scale.

Furthermore, some children just do not respond well to large groups. They may become nervous and over excited by noise and too many people. If your child’ education is effected by these difficulties then learning in the live classroom can become difficult and this can lead to behavioral problems. Virtual learning offers a viable alternative, particularly for children who find the live classroom too challenging or not challenging enough. Many home schooling parents have also found the Internet to be an invaluable tool for contacting other families who are home schooling, both in their local area or worldwide.

Keeping the kids motivated

If your child ever complained that his/her lessons in the live classroom are boring you may feel concerned that this is affecting their learning progress. Many parents choose online education for precisely this reason. Young children seem to get a number of benefits from online learning, one of the main ones being the pleasure gained from interactive educational programs. Because courses aimed at young children incorporate play into learning activities, children stay focused and have fun learning. Nathan is five and half years old and is home schooled by his mother. He has been an online student for almost a year. In the virtual classroom, Nathan uses learning games to explore math, Rhyming words and his ABC's. If you ask him what he likes about online learning, his answer is clear. “I like the whole thing, because it is a game, my favorite things are games. I only don't like it when I can’t get online during the day.”

Exploring the virtual High School

For older children, online learning can mean the difference between failing grades or passing with flying colors. There are no blackboards and raised hands in Barbara Fardell’s classrooms. She has been an online instructor at Michigan Virtual High School since 2002, where she offers courses in Psychology, American Literature, Business Communication, and Career Planning. She explains that after teaching alternative education for five years she saw a need to offer students other options to accommodate various learning styles and life situations. Some of the children taking courses at Michigan Online High School cannot take classes in their own schools for economic reasons or small class sizes. 

These students have been able to take their AP courses online and have been very successful at passing the AP exam. Barbara explains, “my students have found that the opportunity to work on their course anytime and anyplace is the best reason to take a class online. As an instructor I've found that I get to know my students better online since we communicate more on a one to one basis than in the traditional classroom.” Barbara has also found that online learning gives her students a greater opportunity to go over the class material more than once should they need extra studying time, or if they miss a lecture. “Online courses have allowed many seniors to graduate on time with their class since they are able to make up courses working after school and during the summer.” Barbara’s other students include children suffering from ADHD or who are in hospital and are unable to attend live classrooms. Feedback from Barbara’s students and their parents is generally very positive; “the only negative feedback that I have ever received from a student is that they did not have enough motivation to finish a course and that they needed the face to face daily nag of a teacher to complete a class.”

Adult online learning

An increasing number of universities are developing their courses more specifically for the virtual classroom. The benefits of this approach are clear. Specifically designed courseware enables the virtual student not only to follow the course more closely but also to gain access to other resources such as required tests and university libraries online. Often, online universities also offer taped lectures and written texts for students to use.

Virginia is twenty-five and during the past year she has studied taken political science, sociology, and other humanities courses online. She opted for the virtual classroom so that could fit the coursework into her schedule and study regardless of the time of day. While she enjoyed the benefits of not having to drive to class and being flexible with her timetable she explains one of the drawbacks of online learning. “ I found that mathematics was nearly impossible to do online. It can be hard to relate what you don’t understand about a specific mathematical problem without being able to show your attempts to solve the problem.”

Virtual communication problems

Communication can be a problem in the virtual classroom. Many web-based courses rely primarily on asynchronous communication to deliver course information to students. This means that instructors and students are not online at the same time. Instead, messages are posted on a forum, web page, or are sent as e-mail. Asynchronous communication is no further removed from traditional mail-based courses and does not take full advantage of Internet capabilities. Though student questions are usually answered within a designated period, the time delay can be a definite disadvantage, especially if the student needs to post follow-up questions.

Asynchronous communication also means that students receive information passively, which limits the potential for independent thinking. Basically this method is no further removed from traditional mail-based courses and can contribute to students’ feelings of isolation and loneliness when involved with online classes because of the lack of immediate interaction with tutors and fellow students. If you’re concerned about his, look for courses that offer regular live group chat sessions as well as bulletin boards, these are much more amenable to online students. They will enable you not only to discuss projects with your tutors in real time, but also to discuss projects with other students. You may well find that one-on-one chats with instructors will boost your motivation and morale as well as enabling you to keep up to date with course work.

Democracy in the classroom

Many students report other positive outcomes of live online classrooms and chat rooms. Because tutors and students are differentiated purely by their online names, race, age and gender are not issues. Participant’s ideas are judged solely on their merits, which allows a greater range of democracy and comfort in the virtual classroom than might otherwise be experienced in the live classroom. Students who are often uncomfortable about speaking out in public can feel free to actively participate in online discussions. Those who rarely interact in the chat room and who do not respond to instructor questions tend to earn poor grades in class. Synchronous communication enables instructors to monitor students' chat room activity for signs of success or failure in the virtual classroom so that they can predict and enhance students' performance on graded components of the class.

Do employers accept online degrees?

Furthermore, A recent survey of 1,300 graduates and 80 employers asked supervisors to rate the value of the degree earned by their employee compared to a resident school degree in the same field. Sixty-nine percent of the supervisors rated the online degree "just as valuable" or "more valuable" than traditional degrees. Supervisors felt much more positive on other distance learning issues. Ninety-one percent of the supervisors thought that the graduate they supervised compared favorably in knowledge, skills and attitude with subordinates with resident degrees. Eighty-four percent said that they would be inclined to hire or supervise other employees who have earned their degrees via distance education. Online learning also proves to be directly beneficial to employees seeking to improve their situation. In the same survey, fifty-four percent of the students received an increase in their income due to earning their degree and fifty percent had a job promotion or change in careers that improved their life as a result of earning their online degree.

As yet the virtual classroom is in its infancy, today is a very exciting time for technology and education. Online programs offer technology-based instructional environments that expand learning opportunities and can provide top quality education through a variety of formats and modalities. As more and more courses become available course content and communication software and technologies will continue to improve. Almost every day we see improvements in electronic media that can enhance online education, more schools offering online courses, more users connecting to the Internet. Whether you’re looking for easy access to learning, to improve your career potential, or learn something new just for fun, the Internet hosts a wide range of online courses that promise to offer something for everyone, wherever you are.

Your How-to Guide for Personal, Safe and Sound On-Line Travel Booking
February, 2004
By Nadine Meeker

The world has come a long way since the days of horse and buggy and the steam engine. Trips that would take weeks or even months in the twentieth century now take a matter of hours. Vacationers can have breakfast near the Statue of Liberty and still have time to catch the lights of the Eiffel Tower in Paris that night. Yet how to get from point A to point B is a question that travelers still face today. Add to this the advent of the Internet and the possibilities seem endless and perhaps even frustrating.

In the Beginning

Conventionally, people went to travel agents to book trips, either home or abroad. Travel agents offered better deals or packages that airlines or hotels didn’t offer to the general public. Often a traveler could call an agent and give a location with instructions of his needs. The agent simply shopped around for the best prices and researched the area if he wasn’t already familiar with it. In some instances, an agent could book a whole itinerary of the area, arranging what visitors could do and sightseeing possibilities.

Here and Now

With the Internet, the rules of travel have changed. Travelers can essentially become their own agents by contacting hotels, airlines and even tourist information bureaus for the area. The U.S. Department of Labor claims, “…many consumers still will prefer to use a professional travel agent to ensure reliability, to save time, and, in some cases, money.” Although this is true to a point there are pros and cons when it comes to finding an agent or booking your trip via the Internet.

If time is a factor then a travel agent most certainly will help. Researching locales, looking for the best lodging, comparing pricing and searching for places of interest in an area is time consuming, especially if a traveler is unfamiliar with the area he plans to visit. A good agent will stay aware of trends and savings. He knows the best places to fit a buyers needs and he can do it quickly and effectively. Some agents will also confirm reservations so the client doesn’t have to do it.

When a traveler builds his own vacation he must make the call to be certain that a room is waiting for him when he arrives and he must confirm with the airline to be certain there are no problems. In other words, he needs to do a larger amount of the work. For those that lack the time but not the money, a travel agent can be a valuable tool.

The second factor to consider when choosing to book with an agent or online is money. If funds aren’t plentiful sometimes vacationers can find rates on the Internet better than what a hotel or an agent can get them directly. Highly advertised sites like Priceline.com or Hotwire.com are two sources that can greatly reduce the price paid for a hotel stay or airline travel. Although tourists can pick a particular area (like mid-town Manhattan) the drawback is that buyers have no say in what hotel they will stay aside for the ‘star rating’ (one star being economy and four stars being upscale with many amenities). Buyers on these sites are charged for the trip in advance. Only after the terms have been accepted (which is usually no refund) do they find out at which hotel they will be staying. Going in ‘blind’ however has its advantages – the savings on a four star hotel can be substantial to any price an agent or travel site might propose.

The same conditions at these sites are similar for air travel. Often, the flight times cover a broad number of hours (anywhere from 6 A.M to 10 P.M) and a connection flight is almost a guarantee. Also, passengers cannot pick an airline – one is given. But again, the savings might be worth a couple hours in layover time in another city.

Comparing Apples-to-Apples

For those people simply looking for a place to crash a weary head, there are other sites that offer hotel discounts such as Orbitz.com, Hotels.com, Travelocity.com and Expedia.com. All of these sites offer other features such as car rental and airline flights too but their main focus is hotels and vacation packages. One of the benefits of booking through them is knowing in advance the price and the location. Another bonus is being able to sort by price from least expensive and compare figures. Other smaller sites that web users might not be aware of that offer similar services are Onetravel.com and its family companies Discount hotels.com and Cheapseats.com.

What makes Discounthotels.com easy to use is the simple ‘point and click’ of a state that takes visitors to all the cities with special rates. As for Cheapseats.com their site claims that in a study conducted by Topaz International, Ltd., a Portland, OR-based airfare auditing firm, ‘CheapSeats returned fares with average savings of $45 per ticket versus Orbitz, $82 per ticket versus Expedia, and $341 per ticket versus Travelocity.’ In addition all three of these sites are partnered with Lycos.com.

If these sites aren’t enough, more can be found at Travelzoo.com. This site doesn’t do direct sales to customers but they do offer a host of links that goes to various other web locations that are offering hot deals on travel.

For the carefree traveler who likes to just hop in the car and go there are discounts available to last minute travelers online too. The sites mentioned above do have such offers but another site some readers might not be aware of is Roomsavers.com. Clipping the coupons of a state or area before leaving can lead to significant discounts at the check-in window. The hitch is that discounts aren’t given for reservations made in advance but the savings can be worth it for last minute travelers who present a coupon.

A New Spin on an Old Promotion

Although the Internet has grown in the last ten years and changed the face of travel an older business practice as found a new life on the web – Travel Memberships. Playersvacationclub.com, for example, could best be called a ‘layaway’ vacation site. Entry into the program is under five dollars (for credit check purposes) but fees are expected after the trial period. The benefit of this program is the vacation doesn’t have to be paid in one lump sum. Payments can be spread out over time. Travelersadvantage.com is another membership club where a fee is paid in order to get the discounts they have. In addition to hotels they also have information on cabin rentals or bed and breakfast inns that other larger sites don’t offer.

But as with any travel site it’s best that buyers read the fine print. Some sites have cancelable trips, other do not. Some offer the information and booking at no charges while others do have fees. With coupon sites like roomsavers.com there might be restrictions on when the discount can be taken, such as exclusion on certain dates. As with any major purchase, knowing the rules of each site will help to ensure that a traveler’s needs are met.

So whether travelers are staying on the other side of town or the other side of the world, the World Wide Web can be a wonderful tool to getting great deals for a relaxing getaway or family fun.

Rockbridge Global Village, Inc.
312 S. Main Street
Lexington, VA 24450
540-463-4451
www.rockbridge.net